Really thought I had posted this site before, but it is awesome.

http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese

They have over 500 audio lessons for free. You can listen on the site or download the mp3's. They also have five levels from newbie to media (advanced).

Think Pimsluer, but with a lot more lessons. With a paid account you can get access to different things like vocab lists, lesson exercises, pronunciation guides, grammar guides, flashcards, etc.

I am still busy still trying to improve my Indonesian. Once it gets to a satisfactory level, I think I am going to hit the Mandarin. I really think China is going to be the place (for business and otherwise) for the rest of my life. So learning Mandarin may not be a bad idea.

Here is a link to the first Chinese lesson on how to say Good Morning.

http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/intro-1-good-morning/discussion

The company who started this is also doing the same for Spanish.

http://spanishsense.com/

Here is the Wikipedia about Chinese Pod.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Pod

Self teaching mechanisms never let anyone truly learn a language. I am currently paying a tutor here in the USA and its the only way to truly know if you are understanding the language, especially Mandarin which is even more tonal than Thai. An even better book is Integrated Chinese with simplified characters. You can buy it with a CD and/or software.

There are six different podcasts that have decent Mandarin lessons:

Mandarin Lessons with Serge Melnyk
Times Online Mandarin Conversation
Mychinesepod.com
Chineselearnonline.com
learnchinesepod.com
ezychinese.com

These are good as a supplement to classes and/or a tutor. You can also find Pimsleur(which I think is aweful), Rosetta Stone, and several others including DVD learning tools on bittorrent sites like btjunkie.org.

If you just want to learn a couple phrases then the podcasts will do just fine. If you truly want to learn a language then you have to do it the hard way. Think about it Xen, how many languages have you started to learn but you probably cant speak one of them now.

Good links by all.

Blazers is right though for me, I took 6 years of Spanish in Jr. & Hi school and learned nada except conjugating verbs all day. I learned more from my trips to Colombia; nothing more motivating than a pretty Colombiana.

I've also been using Skype to regularly talk to the Indonesian girls and find that useful in increasing useful vocabulary.

If I may read between the lines here, did someone get smitten and have an awesome session with a Chinese visitor on a recent visit to some faraway country?

Master saki: lol!

As for the debate over learning Chinese... Blazers is absolutely correct. I studied on my own for a few years and it was essentially a waste of time. Then way back when in grad school I took formal classes and lived with a native speaker. That was the only time I made any progress and still have a pretty good memory recall given the fact I've been out of school well over a decade.

With that said, chinese pod is prob the best online resource I've found to brush up on material.

I have some rich Chinese ladies trying to teach me Mandarin these days. Not much interest on my part, so I am not getting very far.